Edge IIoT
Edge computing and industrial automation
Tests, traces and running hours, captured at the machine and filed on the record it belongs to: the quality record of the unit being made, or the equipment record of the machine. On hardware you own.
How it works
From the machine to the record
- At the machine Remote I/O, Modbus, OPC UA, or the instrument's own export. Nothing is fitted inside the machine.
- Edge PC One industrial PC on your site.
- Stored first Every sample, frame and result is written to disk before it is sent.
- Quality record Readings and camera frames, filed against the serial number.QCore
- Equipment record Condition data, attached to the machine's record.AssetCore
- Costing and billing Running hours and output counts, for costing and billing.RAKNexus
What it is
Two things it does
Edge computing
The computing happens beside the machine, on an industrial PC on your floor, rather than in a distant data centre. Readings are captured and stored where they are made, and the data stays on your site.
Industrial automation
Collecting the data is automatic. Readings come from the controllers, meters and instruments your machines already have, instead of being written down by hand.
What it answers
Two questions a factory needs answered
Did this unit pass, and can I prove it?
Instrument results, sensor traces and camera frames, filed against the serial number or lot in QCore, next to the inspection results and the signature.
Which machine is about to cost me a shift?
Bearing temperatures, vibration, motor current, running hours and starts, attached to the equipment record in AssetCore.
Panels
Designed for each site
Every installation is built around our own edge controller: an industrial Linux computer that runs the same software at every size, from a few signals to a whole plant. The panel around it is designed for your equipment, with fabrication drawings and a wiring schedule for a panel shop.
Workshops and production lines
I/O at each bay, with cameras and scanners on their own network, feeding QCore.
Test halls
Isolated inputs from your test instruments, cameras, and an adapter for the instruments' export files.
Remote sites and wellheads
A small controller reading pressure and temperature, holding its readings through outages and sending them over cellular or your own network.
Solar plants
Inverters, meters and the weather station, read on site.
What it reads
What your equipment already knows
- Controllers and PLCs. Modbus TCP and RTU, OPC UA, Siemens S7, EtherNet/IP, MQTT and Sparkplug B.
- Utilities and substations. IEC 60870-5-104, IEC 61850 and DNP3.
- Buildings. BACnet, and KNX and DALI lighting through a gateway.
- Engines, rigs and instruments. Engine and generator controllers over CAN (J1939), rig data over WITS0, HART transmitters, IP cameras, and the export files of test instruments.
- Machines with no digital interface. 4–20 mA, 0–10 V, PT100, thermocouples, dry contacts, proximity switches, pulses and encoders, wired to a small I/O panel beside the machine.
- Nothing leaves the site unless you choose. It runs on hardware you own, and reads your equipment without changing anything in it.
Where it fits
The sites it is designed for
Factory lines and workshops
PLCs, furnaces, presses and test benches, with cameras at the stations that need evidence.
Test halls
Test instruments and long temperature traces, filed against each unit's serial number.
Solar plants and substations
Inverters, meters, weather stations and protection relays.
Wellsites and rigs
Pressures and temperatures at the wellhead, and rig data from the recorder already on site.
Reliability
Built for sites where things go wrong
- When the network drops. Readings keep being recorded, and are sent in order, with their original times, when the connection returns.
- When a server restarts. Readings waiting for delivery are held until QCore or AssetCore is back.
- When the power fails. A battery-backed panel keeps running, and everything restarts by itself.
The other half
The machine records itself; a person records the rest
QCore's phone app covers what a person does: scan a serial number, open the unit's route card, and sign off each step as it is done, offline where there is no signal. The edge device covers what the machine did. Both write into the same record against the same serial number.
Next
A survey, then a quote
Tell us what the machines are, what they already speak, and what you want to know. We size the panel and the controller from that.
RAK Engineering · rakengine.com/industrial-iot/ · support@rakengine.com